Toto Wolff on Lewis Hamilton restart: 'It can't be called a mistake'

Speaking to Sky Sports he explained that the issue was caused by a switch on the steering wheel. However, Wolff insisted that it was just a piece of bad luck more than anything, exclaiming that: "It can't be called a mistake.

"It was just when Sergio when he came over... we have the same procedure. He touched the button that changed the brake balance and the brake balance went all the way forward and the car didn't stop."

Adding that, "I think it was more a simple finger problem," rather than the smoking brakes visible before the restart.

Underlying issues visible for Mercedes

Wolff also went on to explain that the competitiveness of the car hasn't been on show in Monaco and now in Baku and puts it down to some underlying issues.

"We aren't getting off the start into the happy window with the tyres. After stops, we made operational mistakes and we lose all the time.

"As you can see today, we lose all the time in the twisty old town/city circuits. This is what happened in Monaco. It's not suddenly that the car that won 3 races is nowhere. We know the deficits. We see this in particular areas of the tracks."

Bottas clearly struggling

When asked about Valtteri Bottas' performance today, Wolff put it down to the car, not the Finn, "the car was nowhere. And, when the car is nowhere on a city circuit you lose all confidence."

Confidence in comeback soon

Wolff finished on a positive note, exclaiming that Mercedes' season is still not over, "I have no doubt that this is a team that is so strong and so angry, we are going to transfer the anger to a positive force and we are going to come back."